The Joy Luck Club (Google Books ⧉, Amazon ⧉, Bookshop ⧉)

by Amy Tan

Contributed by NobleBibliophile506

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References To Other Books

Indirect References

Feathers From a Thousand LI Away

ForewordFeathers From a Thousand LI AwayJing-Mei Woo: ...

The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates

Ying-Ying St. Clair: The Moon LadyThe Twenty-Six Malignant GatesWaverly Jong: ...

American Translation

Jing-Mei Woo: Two KindsAmerican TranslationLena St. Clair: Rice HusbandWaverly Jong: ...

Queen Mother of the Western Skies

Jing-Mei Woo: Best QualityQueen Mother of the Western SkiesAn-Mei Hsu: MagpiesYing-Ying St. Clair: ...

murder mysteries

…foods from fiction… sandwiches from Lawrence Sanders murder mysteries, just desserts from Nora Ephron’s Heartburn.

Direct References

Scar

Jing-Mei Woo: The Joy Luck ClubAn-Mei Hsu: ScarLindo Jong: ...

The Red Candle

An-Mei Hsu: ScarLindo Jong: The Red CandleYing-Ying St. Clair: ...

The Moon Lady

Lindo Jong: The Red CandleYing-Ying St. Clair: The Moon LadyThe Twenty-Six ...

Rules of the Game

The Twenty-Six Malignant GatesWaverly Jong: Rules of the GameLena St. Clair: ...

The Voice from the Wall

Waverly Jong: Rules of the GameLena St. Clair: The Voice from the WallRose Hsu Jordan: ...

Half and Half

Lena St. Clair: The Voice from the WallRose Hsu Jordan: Half and HalfJing-Mei Woo: ...

Two Kinds

Rose Hsu Jordan: Half and HalfJing-Mei Woo: Two KindsAmerican TranslationLena St. Clair: ...

Rice Husband

American TranslationLena St. Clair: Rice HusbandWaverly Jong: Four DirectionsRose Hsu Jordan: ...

Four Directions

Lena St. Clair: Rice HusbandWaverly Jong: Four DirectionsRose Hsu Jordan: Without WoodJing-Mei Woo: ...

Without Wood

Waverly Jong: Four DirectionsRose Hsu Jordan: Without WoodJing-Mei Woo: Best QualityQueen Mother of the Western Skies...

Best Quality

Rose Hsu Jordan: Without WoodJing-Mei Woo: Best QualityQueen Mother of the Western SkiesAn-Mei Hsu: Magpies...

Magpies

Queen Mother of the Western SkiesAn-Mei Hsu: MagpiesYing-Ying St. Clair: Waiting Between the TreesLindo Jong: ...

Waiting Between the Trees

An-Mei Hsu: MagpiesYing-Ying St. Clair: Waiting Between the TreesLindo Jong: Double FaceJing-Mei Woo: ...

Double Face

Ying-Ying St. Clair: Waiting Between the TreesLindo Jong: Double FaceJing-Mei Woo: A Pair of Tickets

A Pair of Tickets

Lindo Jong: Double FaceJing-Mei Woo: A Pair of Tickets

Feathers From a Thousand LI Away

Feathers From a Thousand LI Away

The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates

The Joy Luck Club @page { margin-bottom: 5.000000pt; margin-top: 5.000000pt; }     The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates

The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates

“How do you know I’ll fall?” whined the girl.“It is in a book, The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates, all the bad things that can happen to you outside the protection of this house.”

Bible

As proof of her faith, my mother used to carry a small leatherette Bible when she went to the First Chinese Baptist Church every Sunday. But later, after my mother lost her faith in God, that leatherette Bible wound up wedged under a too-short table leg, a way for her to correct the imbalances of life.

The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates

My mother had a superstition, in fact, that children were predisposed to certain dangers on certain days, all depending on their Chinese birthdate. It was explained in a little Chinese book called The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates. There, on each page, was an illustration of some terrible danger that awaited young innocent children.

Bible

One night I had to look at a page from the Bible for three minutes and then report everything I could remember. "Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honor in abundance and…that’s all I remember, Ma," I said.

Heartburn

…foods from fiction… sandwiches from Lawrence Sanders murder mysteries, just desserts from Nora Ephron’s Heartburn. And something else with a magic theme, or jokes and gags, or…

Cooking the Chinese Way

…and then she nudged me with a little spiral-bound book hand-titled “Cooking the Chinese Way by China Mary Chan.” They were selling them at the door, only five dollars each, to raise money for the Refugee Scholarship Fund.

Pinocchio

…and she added that Shoshana, her four‐year‐old daughter from a previous marriage, wanted to know if my parents had a VCR so she could watch Pinocchio, just in case she got bored.

Referenced By

No books reference this book

Places Referenced

Shanghai, China
"The old woman remembered a swan she had bought many years ago in Shanghai for a foolish sum."
New York, New York
"First electronic edition published 2003 by RosettaBooks LLC, New York."
China, Asia
"my family in China and America"
Oakland, California
"Born in 1952 in Oakland, California to Chinese immigrant parents, Amy Tan followed her own path."
Chungking, China
"…she had gone north to Chungking, where she met my father,"
United States of America
"On her journey she cooed to the swan: “In America I will have a daughter just like me."
Kweilin, China
"I dreamed about Kweilin before I ever saw it," my mother began, speaking Chinese."
Chungking, China
"I packed my things and my two babies into this wheelbarrow and began pushing to Chungking four days before the Japanese marched into Kweilin."
Shanghai, China
"And there was a girl with very fine manners from a rich family in Shanghai. She had escaped with only a little money."
Nanking, China
"And there was a girl from Nanking who had the blackest hair I have ever seen."
Hangzhou, China
"When the train pulled out of Hangzhou the next day, the Hsus found themselves depleted of some nine thousand dollars’ worth of goodwill."
Ningbo, China
"And when their China tour finally arrived in Hangzhou, the whole family from Ningbo was there to meet them."
Clement Street, San Francisco, California, United States
"Auntie An-mei must have bought this on Clement Street."
Sunset District, San Francisco, California, United States
"When Auntie An-mei and Uncle George moved to the Sunset district from Chinatown twenty-five years ago..."
Russian Hill, San Francisco, California, United States
"...my being evicted from my apartment on lower Russian Hill."
Overlooking the Lake Hotel, Hangzhou, China
"for a night’s lodging for twenty-six people in the Overlooking the Lake Hotel..."
Ningpo, China
"The life that I knew began in the large house in Ningpo with the cold hallways and tall stairs."
Taiyuan, Shanxi, China
"When I was older, I came to recognize this as a Peking accent, which sounds quite strange to Taiyuan people’s ears."
Peking, China
"I got my clothes, a rail ticket to Peking, and enough money to go to America."
Shanghai, China
"My father said we had no choice but to move the family to Wushi, to the south near Shanghai, where my mother’s brother owned a small flour mill."
Wushi, China
"My father said we had no choice but to move the family to Wushi, to the south near Shanghai, where my mother’s brother owned a small flour mill."
Shanxi Province, China
"But the week before the moon arrived, the Japanese came. They invaded Shansi province, as well as the provinces bordering us."
Fen River, Shanxi, China
"On the east wall of our compound was the river, which my father said liked to swallow little children. He said it had once swallowed the whole town of Taiyuan."
America, United States
"I got my clothes, a rail ticket to Peking, and enough money to go to America."
Tai Lake, China
"“Even though Tai Lake is one of the largest in all of China, that day it seemed crowded with boats: rowboats, pedal boats, sailboats, fishing boats, and floating pavilions like ours.”"
Kunming, Yunnan, China
"“Your mother has made you new tiger clothes for the Moon Festival.… ‘She will banish us both to Kunming.’ And then I was truly frightened, because I had heard that Kunming was so far away nobody ever came to visit, and that it was a wild place surrounded by a stone forest ruled by monkeys.”"
Waverly Place, San Francisco, California
"We lived on Waverly Place, in a warm, clean, two-bedroom flat that sat above a small Chinese bakery specializing in steamed pastries and dim sum. My mother named me after the street that we lived on: Waverly Place Jong, my official name for important American documents."
First Chinese Baptist Church, San Francisco, California
"We had gone to the annual Christmas party held at the First Chinese Baptist Church at the end of the alley."
Ping Yuen Fish Market, San Francisco, California
"Farther down the street was Ping Yuen Fish Market. The front window displayed a tank crowded with doomed fish and turtles struggling to gain footing on the slimy green-tiled sides."
Oakland, California
"I turned to my opponent, a fifteen-year-old boy from Oakland. He looked at me, wrinkling his nose."
Oakland, California
"As I remember it, the dark side of my mother sprang from the basement in our old house in Oakland."
Angel Island Immigration Station, Angel Island, California
"My father said the picture was taken when Ma was first released from Angel Island Immigration Station. She stayed there for three weeks, until they could process her papers and determine whether she was a War Bride, a Displaced Person, a Student, or the wife of a Chinese-American citizen."
San Francisco, California
"And we did move up, across the bay to San Francisco and up a hill in North Beach, to an Italian neighborhood, where the sidewalk was so steep I had to lean into the slant to get home from school each day."
North Beach, San Francisco, California
"and up a hill in North Beach, to an Italian neighborhood, where the sidewalk was so steep I had to lean into the slant to get home from school each day."
Gold Spike, San Francisco, California
"My father explained to me when we were eating dinner at the Gold Spike, just the two of us, because my mother was lying like a statue on her bed."
First Chinese Baptist Church, San Francisco, California
"my mother used to carry a small leatherette Bible when she went to the First Chinese Baptist Church every Sunday."
Shanghai, China
"…then they went southeast to Shanghai and fled farther south to Hong Kong"
China, Asia
"my mother and father left China with one stiff leather trunk filled only with fancy silk dresses."
Woodside, California
"Did you know Lena move to Woodside?" asks Auntie Ying with obvious pride."
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
"She would take out a box of old ski sweaters sent to us by unseen relatives from Vancouver."
Wushi, China
"My mother was from Wushi, near Shanghai. So she spoke Mandarin and a little bit of English."
Berkeley, California
"This was during my second semester at UC Berkeley, where I had enrolled as a liberal arts major and later changed to fine arts."
Tarrytown, New York
"the fact that his parents immigrated from Tarrytown, New York, not Tientsin, China."
Tientsin, China
"the fact that his parents immigrated from Tarrytown, New York, not Tientsin, China."
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California
"Ted had casually invited me to a family picnic, the annual clan reunion held by the polo fields in Golden Gate Park."
UCSF, San Francisco, California
"the month before Ted started medical school at UCSF we were married in the Episcopal church."
Ashbury Heights, San Francisco, California
"When Ted finished his residency in dermatology, we bought a run-down three-story Victorian with a large garden in Ashbury Heights."
Geary Boulevard, San Francisco, California
"She used no map. She drove smoothly ahead, turning down Geary, then the Great Highway, signaling at all the right times, getting on the Coast Highway and easily winding the car around the sharp curves that often led inexperienced drivers off and over the cliffs."
Great Highway, San Francisco, California
"She used no map. She drove smoothly ahead, turning down Geary, then the Great Highway, signaling at all the right times, getting on the Coast Highway and easily winding the car around the sharp curves that often led inexperienced drivers off and over the cliffs."
Devil’s Slide, California
"We had gone to the beach, to a secluded spot south of the city near Devil’s Slide."
China, Asia
"She had come here in 1949 after losing everything in China: her mother and father, her family home, her first husband, and two daughters, twin baby girls."
Mission District, San Francisco, California
"Soon after my mother got this idea about Shirley Temple, she took me to a beauty training school in the Mission district and put me in the hands of a student who could barely hold the scissors without shaking."
Sacramento Street, San Francisco, California
"All I knew was the capital of California, because Sacramento was the name of the street we lived on in Chinatown."
Finland, Europe
"What’s the capital of Finland?" my mother asked me, looking at the magazine story."
Helsinki, Finland
"She checked to see if that was possibly one way to pronounce "Helsinki" before showing me the answer."
San Francisco, California
"…we are only a forty‐minute drive to my mother’s apartment in San Francisco."
Woodside, California
"…now she is visiting my husband and me in the house we just bought in Woodside."
Oakland, California
"…Arnold Reisman, a boy who lived in our old neighborhood in Oakland, had died of complications from measles."
Hayward, California
"…he had just been accepted to Cal State Hayward and was planning to become a podiatrist."
Highway 9, Woodside, California
"…Harold and I were lucky to find this place, which is near the summit of Highway 9, then a left‐right‐left down three forks of unmarked dirt roads, unmarked because the residents always tear down the signs to keep out salesmen, developers, and city inspectors."
Stockton Street, San Francisco, California
"And one day I told her so, shouting at her on Stockton Street, in the middle of a crowd of people. I told her she didn’t know anything, so she shouldn’t show off."
North Beach, San Francisco, California
"After walking through North Beach one Sunday, I suggested to Rich that we stop by for a surprise visit to my Auntie Su and Uncle Canning."
Leavenworth Street, San Francisco, California
"They lived on Leavenworth, just a few blocks west of my mother’s apartment."
San Francisco, California
"‘It’s hardly ever cold enough in San Francisco to wear mink.’"
Stanford, California
"He graduated third in his class at Lowell and got a full scholarship to Stanford."
China, Asia
"My mother says July is not a good time to go to China on our honeymoon."
Beijing, China
"She and my father have just returned from a trip to Beijing and Taiyuan."
Taiyuan, Shanxi, China
"‘Half of everything inside you is from me, your mother’s side, from the Sun clan in Taiyuan.’"
Stockton Street, San Francisco, California
"…my mother and I had bought them on Stockton Street in Chinatown. We had walked down the steep hill from my parents’ flat…"
Leavenworth, San Francisco, California
"…my parents’ flat, which was actually the first floor of a six‐unit building they owned on Leavenworth near California."
Howard Street, San Francisco, California
"…‘You mean you still go to that guy on Howard Street?’"
Kweilin, China
"…she had come here in 1949, at the end of a long journey that started in Kweilin in 1944;"
Los Angeles, California
"The tests got harder—multiplying numbers in my head, finding the queen of hearts in a deck of cards, trying to stand on my head without using my hands, predicting the daily temperatures in Los Angeles, New York, and London."
United States
"My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America. You could open a restaurant. You could work for the government and get good retirement."
London, England
"The tests got harder—multiplying numbers in my head, finding the queen of hearts in a deck of cards, trying to stand on my head without using my hands, predicting the daily temperatures in Los Angeles, New York, and London."
China, Asia
"All I knew was the capital of California, because Sacramento was the name of the street we lived on in Chinatown."
China, Asia
"…Every time I went with her to Chinatown, she pointed out other Chinese women her age."
Taiwan, East Asia
"Ai!' she cried loudly, 'I’m not from Taiwan!"
Coast Highway, Los Angeles, California
"She used no map. She drove smoothly ahead, turning down Geary, then the Great Highway, signaling at all the right times, getting on the Coast Highway and easily winding the car around the sharp curves that often led inexperienced drivers off and over the cliffs."
Hong Kong, China
"…fled farther south to Hong Kong, where the boat departed for San Francisco."
San Francisco, California
"…where the boat departed for San Francisco."
California, United States
"…my parents’ flat, which was actually the first floor of a six‐unit building they owned on Leavenworth near California."
Ningpo, China
"My mother was a stranger to me when she first arrived at my uncle’s house in Ningpo. I was nine years old and had not seen her for many years."
Tientsin, China
"And after Popo’s funeral, she obeyed my uncle. She prepared herself to return to Tientsin, where she had dishonored her widowhood by becoming the third concubine to a rich man."
British Concession, Tientsin, China
"She said this man owned many carpet factories and lived in a mansion located in the British Concession of Tientsin, the best section of the city where Chinese people could live."
Paima Di, Racehorse Street, Tientsin, China
"We lived not too far from Paima Di, Racehorse Street, where only Westerners could live."
Peking, China
"Before the second cold month began, First Wife returned from Peking, where she kept a house and lived with her two unmarried daughters."
Hangchow, China
"Five years ago—your father had died only one year before—she and I went to Hangchow to visit the Six Harmonies Pagoda on the far side of West Lake."
Six Harmonies Pagoda, Hangchow, China
"Five years ago—your father had died only one year before—she and I went to Hangchow to visit the Six Harmonies Pagoda on the far side of West Lake."
West Lake, Hangchow, China
"Five years ago—your father had died only one year before—she and I went to Hangchow to visit the Six Harmonies Pagoda on the far side of West Lake."
Tientsin Gulf, China
"But when the fifth day came, as we sailed closer toward the Tientsin gulf, the waters changed from muddy yellow to black and the boat began to rock and groan."
Wushi, China
"When I was a young girl in Wushi, I was lihai. Wild and stubborn. I wore a smirk on my face."
Tai Lake, China
"There was an afternoon on Tai Lake soon after this man and I married. I remember this is when I came to love him."
Shanghai, China
"I went to the country outside of Shanghai to live with a second cousin’s family. I stayed in this country home for ten years."
Tientsin, China
"A letter came from Tientsin, not from my family, who thought I was dead. It was from my youngest aunt."
Hong Kong, China
"She left mysteriously for Hong Kong soon after my husband disappeared."
America, United States
"Saint took me to America, where I lived in houses smaller than the one in the country. I wore large American clothes."
China, Asia
"My daughter wanted to go to China for her second honeymoon, but now she is afraid."
Peking, China
"I paid an American‐raised Chinese girl in Peking to show me how."
Hong Kong, China
"The plane took three weeks. It stopped everywhere: Hong Kong, Vietnam, the Philippines, Hawaii."
Vietnam, Southeast Asia
"The plane took three weeks. It stopped everywhere: Hong Kong, Vietnam, the Philippines, Hawaii."
Philippines, Southeast Asia
"The plane took three weeks. It stopped everywhere: Hong Kong, Vietnam, the Philippines, Hawaii."
Hawaii, United States
"The plane took three weeks. It stopped everywhere: Hong Kong, Vietnam, the Philippines, Hawaii."
San Francisco, California
"I decided to go first to a San Francisco address given to me by this girl in Peking."
California Street, San Francisco
"The bus put me down on a wide street with cable cars. This was California Street."
Old St. Mary's, San Francisco
"I walked up this hill and then I saw a tall building. This was Old St. Mary’s."
Portsmouth Square, San Francisco
"We were walking in Portsmouth Square and already the fog had blown in and I was very cold in my thin coat."
Cathay House, San Francisco
"Why do you always tell people that I met your father in the Cathay House, that I broke open a fortune cookie and it said I would marry a dark, handsome stranger?"
Hong Kong, China
"The minute our train leaves the Hong Kong border and enters Shenzhen, China, I feel different."
Shenzhen, China
"The minute our train leaves the Hong Kong border and enters Shenzhen, China, I feel different."
Galileo High, San Francisco, California, United States
"I was a sophomore at Galileo High in San Francisco, and all my Caucasian friends agreed: I was about as Chinese as they were."
Guangzhou, China
"In less than three hours, we will be in Guangzhou, which my guidebook tells me is how one properly refers to Canton these days."
Shanghai, China
"After visiting my father’s aunt in Guangzhou, we will catch a plane to Shanghai, where I will meet my two half‐sisters for the first time."
Chongqing, China
"Little babies she was forced to abandon on a road as she was fleeing Kweilin for Chungking in 1944."
Guilin, China
"Little babies she was forced to abandon on a road as she was fleeing Kweilin for Chungking in 1944."
Toishan, China
"‘One day! How can you see your family in one day! Toishan is many hours’ drive from Guangzhou. And this idea to call us when you arrive. This is nonsense."
Haiphong, Vietnam
"And then they traveled eventually to Canton and then to Hong Kong, then Haiphong and finally to San Francisco."
Changsha, China
"We went to many different cities—back to Kweilin, to Changsha, as far south as Kunming."
Washington Street, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
"With the addresses this old woman gave me, I found a cheap apartment on Washington Street."
Taiyuan, Shanxi, China
"Next to the word BIRTHDATE, I put down Taiyuan, China."
First Chinese Baptist Church, San Francisco, California
"One month later we had a ceremony in the First Chinese Baptist Church, where we met."
Huanshi Dong Lu, Guangzhou, China
"And there it says on our itinerary: Garden Hotel, Huanshi Dong Lu. Well, our travel agent had better be prepared to eat the extra, that’s all I have to say."
Nanjing Dong Road, Shanghai, China
"Because after your mother died, the schoolmate saw your sisters, by chance, while shopping for shoes at the Number One Department Store on Nanjing Dong Road."
9 Weichang Lu, Shanghai, China
"When she found the place at 9 Weichang Lu, in the old French Concession, it was something completely different."
French Concession, Shanghai, China
"When she found the place at 9 Weichang Lu, in the old French Concession, it was something completely different."
Yenching University, Beijing, China
"How he had gone to Yenching University, later got a post with a newspaper in Chungking, met my mother there, a young widow."
Kunming, Yunnan, China
"We went to many different cities—back to Kweilin, to Changsha, as far south as Kunming."
New York, New York
"‘You call Apple for New York. Frisco for San Francisco.’"
New York, New York
"The tests got harder—multiplying numbers in my head, finding the queen of hearts in a deck of cards, trying to stand on my head without using my hands, predicting the daily temperatures in Los Angeles, New York, and London."
United States
"my family in China and America"
United States
"“What if they don’t let me come back to the United States?”"
San Francisco, California
"My mother started the San Francisco version of the Joy Luck Club in 1949, two years before I was born."
San Francisco, California
"I was a sophomore at Galileo High in San Francisco, and all my Caucasian friends agreed: I was about as Chinese as they were."
China, Asia
"An opportunity to travel with her mother back to China brought a new perspective."
China, Asia
"The daughters know one side of their mothers, but they don’t know about their earlier never-spoken-of lives in China."
China, Asia
"When I was a young girl in China, my grandmother told me my mother was a ghost."
China, Asia
"When Auntie An-mei and Uncle George moved to the Sunset district from Chinatown twenty-five years ago..."
China, Asia
"We lived in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Like most of the other Chinese children who played in the back alleys of restaurants and curio shops, I didn’t think we were poor."
China, Asia
"“Don’t look at her,” said my mother as we walked through Chinatown in Oakland."